Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo (third from the L) and IOC president Thomas Bach (middle) during a visit of the Olympic Flame at Japan Olympic Museum. IOC PHOTO / GREG MARTIN
MANILA, Philippines—Filipino Olympic gymnast Carlos Yulo was part of the athlete delegation that met with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach during the official’s visit to Tokyo and the city’s Summer Games venues.
Yulo joined judoka Ono Shohei and Paralympian swimmer Kimura Keiichi of Japan, and Venezuelan judoka Elvismar Rodriguez during the meeting with Bach who visited the Olympic Flame at Japan Olympic Museum.
Bach visited Tokyo from November 16 to 18 in his first tour of the city since the COVID-19 pandemic to meet with different Olympic officials and also visit the venues that would host the Summer Games.
According to the Olympic’s official website, Bach first met with new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Nov. 16 at the latter official residence at the Kentei.
“Our determination is to realize successful and secure Tokyo Games next summer as proof that humanity has defeated the virus,” said Suga during the meeting.
Bach said that the IOC is determined to display the Olympic Games as a symbol of unity in the midst of one of the most trying times of the century.
“We share the great commitment of the Prime Minister that the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will happen next year. We are determined that safe Olympic Games will be a symbol of solidarity and unity,” said Bach. “We have a toolbox of measures against the COVID virus, and together with our Japanese friends and partners we will make sure that these Games will be a light at the end of the dark tunnel in which we find ourselves.”
Bach also met with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike who assured the IOC President that the city’s hosting would be a model of future Games.
“We are strongly determined, together with the IOC, to stage safe and secure Olympic Games. We will not only achieve cost reductions but also leave a new model for future generations of how the Games can be organized,” said Koike.
Yulo won gold in the Floor Exercise of the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships and is in Tokyo to prepare for the Olympics.